The present invention refers to a method and apparatus for handling textile articles, especially for loading articles on hosiery machines. One of the problem of greater concern in the processing of textile articles is the holding or gripping of the same articles during those steps stages which provide for their transfer between a plurality of work stations or within a same station.
For example, in the stocking-manufacturing sector, this problem relates, particularly, to the operations for turning the stockings inside-out on toe-seaming machines, so-called xe2x80x9ctoe-closersxe2x80x9d and, more generally, to the automatic loading of stockings support members in assembly-line machines for the formation of pantyhose articles.
The devices known at present for the loading of hoses in toe-closer machines, provide for picking up the stockings being held in correspondence of their elastic hem and transferring them thus held onto said hoses wherein the toe of the articles is introduced to allow them to be turned inside-out afterwards. Following this operation, the article results most of the times with the portion of their elastic hem being folded up and this may imply that, after the seaming of the toe, the article is inaccurately removed from the toe-closer""s hoses and incorrectly positioned onto the shapes of machines, such as the line-closers, during the successive assembly steps for the manufacturing of pantyhose articles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,924, EP 521206 and EP 508014 documents disclose devices for the automatic loading of articles on toe-closers and on assembling machines for pantyhose formation.
The devices disclosed in the above documents, exhibit, substantially, a plurality of article-gripping members in correspondence of the elastic hem, said members being mounted on a support movable between a station for gripping the articles unloaded from a device which set them in a predetermined orientation, and a release station in correspondence of the machine receiving these articles.
These documents do not teach how to overcome the above mentioned drawback.
The main object of the present invention is to propose an apparatus allowing to optimize the processes implemented in the textile industry for handling articles to be displaced between a plurality of stations or between machines or devices of a same station.
This result has been achieved, according to the invention, by providing an apparatus and a method having the features indicated in the independent claims. Further characteristics being set forth in the dependent claims.
The present invention makes it possible to always ensure the most correct grip and handling of articles, such as stockings for example, which require to be suitably moved during the operations for their manufacturing.
An apparatus according to the invention is easy to make, cost-effective, reliable even after a prolonged service life, easily installable on existing stocking-feeding lines and able to operate in a fully automatic fashion.